[ad_1]
Minister of Communications Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams.
- The SA post office needs an expert to implement a restructuring plan that will make it more profitable.
- Communications Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams says her department has stepped in to help the post office.
- SAPO’s inability to pay for workers’ health care and pension fund contributions over the past four months has summed up its financial weakness.
Communications Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams says the government is looking for an expert to fix the South African Post Office (SAPO).
SAPO’s restructuring plan will be similar to the recovery plan being implemented at SABC.
On Tuesday, Ndabeni-Abrahams told Parliament’s Communications Portfolio Committee that he was confident that SAPO’s financial challenges would be addressed.
SAPO, for the past four months, has been unable to pay for workers’ health care and pension fund contributions, employee risk benefits, and tax liability (SARS).
Earlier, Fin24 reported that post office workers received a letter from MEDiPOS Medical Scheme stating that SAPO had not paid R213 million in contributions since April 1.
She said:
“We are looking for an expert so that we can turn it around (SAPO), just like we did with the SABC. We have confidence in the board of directors, who will do everything possible to make sure that they must do what is necessary so that employees are not [negatively] affected.”
Ndabeni-Abrahams said they recently received court documents when the administrator of the pension and healthcare fund took SAPO to court.
“They have lost that case, but they have informed me that SAPO met with medical assistance and worked on a payment arrangement. This is something that dispels fears because the department has also joined. We intervene when we identify the gaps,” he added. she said.
READ | The Postbank is being separated from the SA Post Office, says minister
In a shakeup at SAPO last month, Ndabeni-Abrahams fired Colleen Makhubele, a member of the SAPO board, who accused the minister of abusing her powers and acting unconstitutionally.
Ndabeni-Abrahams called a meeting on October 23 after receiving a letter from the interim president of the board, Catharina van der Sandt, asking for guidance after Makhubele launched a tirade during a meeting with the Communications Workers Union (CWU )
Mish Molakeng, a spokesman for Ndabeni-Abrahams, told News24 that the reasons given for Makhubele’s removal were serious and concerning.
Private
Makhubele was not present at the meeting and voluntarily deprived himself of the opportunity to make representations about it, Molakeng said at the time.
On the day of his dismissal, Makhubele responded to the matter in a letter from a lawyer, saying that they acknowledged that he was asked to prepare representations before the board and in the presence of the minister in anticipation of the Special General Meeting (SGM).
He said he did not question the power of the board to ask for Ndabeni-Abrahams to intervene, but argued that SGM was not the appropriate platform in terms of the Companies Act.
READ ALSO | Post office seeks to sell ‘non-essential’ property to generate income
Days before Makhubele’s firing, the cash-strapped post office announced that it was looking to sell “non-essential properties” to increase revenue.
He plans to cut expensive properties, a luxury, considering SAPO’s revenue, which fell dramatically in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
But SAPO is not only looking to sell properties. You want to rent vacant buildings to earn more money and relocate staff to company-owned offices to save on rental costs.
SAPO Acting Executive Director Reneilwe Langa unveiled these plans in Parliament last month.
SAPO has 641 company-owned buildings and 1,120 leased buildings. The value of the properties it owns is R2.8 billion.
